Various types of electrical connectors are designed for mounting on a printed circuit board. A typical board mounted connector includes some form of dielectric housing which mounts one or more conductive terminals. The terminals have terminating ends for connection to appropriate circuit traces on the board and contact ends on or in the housing for engagement with appropriate contacts or terminals of a complementary mating connector. The dielectric housing has a board-mounting end or face and a mating end or face which may have a receptacle, for instance, for receiving a mating end of the complementary mating connector.
One type of board mounted connector is a power (i.e., versus a signal) connector which couples power circuitry to and/or from power circuits on the printed circuit board. Such a power connector includes an elongated receptacle for receiving a flat blade terminal of a complementary mating power connector. In some instances, the receptacle is oriented in a direction generally perpendicular to the board for receiving a power terminal blade inserted into the receptacle generally perpendicularly toward the board. With such perpendicular connectors, there are minimal stresses on the connections to the board because the board, itself, absorbs most of the perpendicular forces.
However, some connectors of this type are “side-entry” connectors, in that the terminal blade is inserted into the connector's receptacle in a direction generally parallel to the board. With such side-entry connectors, considerable stresses, such as sheer stresses, occur at the board connections (which may be solder connections) and the connections often become damaged or broken, which results in defective power transmitting capabilities. It would be highly desirable to provide for some flexibility between the connector and the board to absorb some of the side forces generally parallel to the board, but this is not easily accomplished with many robust power connectors. The present invention is directed to solving these problems.